Taking A Shine To It Booming Custodial Services Gain Foothold With Offices, Businesses

Cover story

April 9, 1990|By Suzy Hagstrom of The Sentinel Staff

After putting in a full day sorting laundry at National Linen Service in Orlando, Annie Thornton has less than an hour to get a snack and report to her second job.

On weekday evenings, Thornton works part time cleaning the sixth floor of Olympia Place, an office tower in downtown Orlando. At each desk on each floor, Thornton and her co-workers empty the trash, dust and vacuum.

They are part of an invisible but growing work force in Central Florida. After white-collar workers vacate the shiny downtown towers and outlying office parks at 5 p.m., thousands of janitors like Thornton enter to clean.

Cleaning companies, ranging from well-known national corporations to one-person-with-a-vacuum businesses, are trying to expand as more commercial buildings dot Orlando's skyline and suburban landscape.

Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties contain 20.5 million square feet of office space, more than triple the 6.6 million square feet reported in 1980.

The number of so-called building service workers, the bulk of whom are janitors, has increased 174 percent from 1,489 in 1978 to 4,078 in 1988 in the three-county area, according to the Florida Department of Labor and Job Security.

''We've never been able to afford to bid a job below cost,'' said Henry Jones, president of HGJ Maintenance Engineering Inc. in Orlando. ''But some companies will do that just to get a contract.''

HGJ Maintenance Engineering, started as a part-time enterprise in 1984 by Jones and his wife, Gloria, has matured into a major cleaning company in Orlando.

Bearing the initials of its founders, HGJ Maintenance Engineering has annual sales of about $680,000 and employs about 120 people. Clients include City Hall, an account valued at about $60,000 a year. The company recently submitted a bid to keep Orlando Arena's cleaning contract, worth about $350,000 a year, which is up for renewal.

''If we're not in the arena again, it won't be because we didn't do a good job,'' Jones said. ''It will be because someone else offers a lower price.''

Janitorial services typically charge 4 cents to 7 cents per square foot a month to clean large office buildings each evening, Monday through Friday. An annual cleaning contract for a downtown Orlando high-rise such as the 450,000-square-foot duPont Centre, for example, is worth more than $200,000.

Attracted by Central Florida's multimillion-dollar cleaning industry, Ogden Allied Services Corp. of New York in 1987 set up a Southeastern regional headquarters in Orlando, where it already served Martin Marietta Corp.

''I was a bit apprehensive,'' recalled vice president John Mahoney. ''I thought, 'Who knew John Mahoney or Ogden Allied?' ''

But Ogden Allied, Thornton's employer, gained several more clients, such as the Travelers Corp.'s regional headquarters, downtown Orlando's newest skyscraper.

More employers, including large corporations and government agencies, are turning to outside companies for janitorial services, said Fred Cosat, director of building operations for Grover Bryan Inc., a property manager.

''Strictly from the economics, it's no longer advantageous to hire your own cleaning people in house,'' Cosat said.

Veterans like Mahoney say Central Florida's cleaning industry still is in its infancy.

PAY LAGS BEHIND THAT OF OTHER CITIES In large cities with a concentration of unions, such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco, janitors work eight-hour shifts at $10 to $13 an hour and receive insurance and retirement benefits. In Orlando, the pay is $4 to $6 an hour. In most cases, the work is part time - typically four hours an evening - and workers do not receive benefits.

Lena Armstead of Orlando exemplifies most janitors in that she uses her part-time wages from cleaning to supplement income from another, full-time job.

''I need it financially. I have to take care of my daughter and pay the bills,'' said Armstead, a single parent.

On weekdays, Armstead is a nurse's aide at Manor Care Nursing Home in Winter Park; on weeknights, she is an International Service System Inc. janitor in duPont Centre.

''My desire would be to go out and pay people a decent living and give them full benefits,'' said Wally Neufeldt, American Building Maintenance Industries Inc.'s Southeast regional manager. ''But if I did that, I wouldn't be competitive, I wouldn't have a contract in Orlando.''

To increase its clientele in Central Florida, American Building Maintenance bought Caltrider Service Co. in Orlando in 1988. Both companies specialized in one-tenant and owner-occupied buildings, such as banks and utilities.

About five months ago, American Building Maintenance decided to go after multitenant buildings, such as major office towers.

Winning and keeping contracts is not easy, said Paul ''Dutch'' Owens, president of AAA Building Services Inc., an Orlando cleaning service founded by his father in 1956.